Top 5 Books I've read in the Last 12 Months

My Top 5 Books in the Last 10 Years

1. Stones from the River, Ursula Hegi
2. Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man, Fannie Flagg
3. Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy, Jostein Gaarder
4. I Know This Much is True, Wally Lamb
5. The Honk and Holler Opening Soon, Billie Letts

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

Welcome to the third stop on the excerpt tour for A Match For Marcus Cynster by Stephanie Laurens. Below you will find the third of 16 excerpts from the book. Make sure to check out this page for links to the rest of the tour stops! Don't forget to check out the giveaway below.

Excerpt #3

Phelps was a
sheep farmer; he and his son, Matt, always carried ropes on their saddles, as
did Sean.

In a group, they walked to the
ledge. They peered into the crevasse, but small bushes and grasses sprouting
from the rock walls made it impossible to see what lay in the shadowed depths.

The opposite lip of the crevasse
was lower than the ledge, but was flanked by scree; circling around to it
wasn’t an option. But the crevasse was very narrow, a gaping wound ripped in
the side of the hill and lined with rock as far down as they could see; there
was no way to walk in and no path down.

Phelps, Matt, and Sean laid out
the ropes. The other men organized themselves into teams to lower Sean and Matt
into the crevasse. Her arms tightly folded, her mind blank, Niniver watched as
the pair went over the edge, each on separate ropes, with a third rope dangling
between them.

As they descended into the
shadows, she walked to the edge; she looked down, watching, but the bushes soon
obscured her view.

She turned her attention to the
ropes. The men slowly let the ropes play out—and out; the crevasse was deeper
than any of them had thought. At last, the tension on the ropes eased as first
Sean, then Matt, reached a point where they could stand.

A moment later, a yelping
exclamation—both Sean’s and Matt’s voices raised in surprise—erupted from the
depths. Peering down, Niniver frowned. Sean and Matt had known what to expect,
so why had they sounded shocked?

“What did they say?” Ferguson
called from where he waited with the other men to haul the pair up again.

Still frowning, she shook her
head. “I don’t know. The rock distorts their voices too much. They’re talking
now, but I can’t make out what they’re saying.”

The third rope—the one Sean and
Matt had planned to tie around Nolan’s body—shifted. Phelps came to stand
beside Niniver, but he, too, could make nothing of the mutterings rising from
below.

Then Sean tugged on his rope, and
Matt tugged his. Phelps rejoined the other men, and they hauled the pair up.

About Stephanie Laurens New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens originally began writing as an escape from the dry world of professional science. Her hobby quickly became a career; she has been writing historical romance novels for more than 20 years. Currently living outside Melbourne, Australia with her husband and two cats, she spends most of her days writing new stories in her signature ‘Errol Flynn meets Jane Austen” style.